John Paul's bids farewell; hunter, restaurateur shares his story

Oct. 31, 2013

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John Paul, owner of restaurant John Paul's Armadillo Oil Company on Congaree Rd., in Greenville, talks about his love for hunting, the places it has taken him and his restaurant on Tuesday, October 29, 2013. / MYKAL McELDOWNEY/Staff

AUCTION COMING: YOU CAN GO

The auction will be held at the restaurant, 637 Congaree Road, Nov. 22 and 23. For more information, go to gorescorvettes.com/events.

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One by one, John Paul let his employees, his regular customers and his friends know he’s closing his John Paul’s Armadillo Oil Company restaurant after 23 years.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but at 74, he wants to spend more time with his wife, Gwen, and his grandsons, who live in Columbia. There are many trips to take, and of course, more hunting.

The restaurant, in a strip shopping center on Congaree near Haywood Mall, has been the repository for Paul’s spoils from the dozens and dozens of hunting trips he’s made since he started traveling the world in the 1970s.

There’s a full-size Alaskan brown bear and an equally imposing buffalo named Brutus. A cape buffalo hangs near the bar. Paul says the cape buffalo, which he shot in Tanzania, is a particularly ferocious animal.

“I had a big rifle. He didn’t,” Paul said.

In Cody, Wyo., Paul wanted a buffalo. He found a rancher with a herd. The rancher told him he had a big one, an old one, that he wanted out to give the younger bulls a chance. Paul shot it in the chest, had it skinned and threw the skull and the skin in a duffle bag and brought it back to Greenville on a plane.

He did the same thing with the bear, a 10-foot-2-inch creature shot on the Alaskan peninsula. But that time Paul had gotten in late and threw the skin and skull in the cooler at the restaurant. Just so happened that a restaurant inspector from the Department of Health and Environmental Control showed up the next day.

“She said, ‘Get that out of here.’ ”

Paul, with a gravelly voice, a patch over one eye and a seemingly endless supply of cigarettes, has more stories than a prolific novelist. He is the consummate host, a restaurateur of the old school, who endeavors to make dining a pleasant experience.

The restaurant business is his second career. His first was with RSO Records, an independent label started by Robert Stigwood, who managed the Bee Gees, Olivia Newton John and Eric Clapton, among others.

Paul worked in marketing but says another responsibility was traveling with the musicians.

“I baby-sat acts,” he said.

Andy Gibb was a favorite, he said.

“Clapton was interesting. Introverted,” Paul said.

Paul lived in New Orleans, Dallas, Charlotte, Chicago and then Atlanta during his decades in the music business.

When his daughter graduated from high school, he decided it was time to quit. He wanted out of Atlanta. He and his wife moved to Pawleys Island. It took just a few months for Paul to get bored.

He decided to open a restaurant in Murrells Inlet, which is known for its many seafood restaurants. Called T-Bones, the restaurant was a steakhouse. People thought he was a fool for opening something other than a seafood restaurant at the coast. He thought people might want something different after days of fried fish. He was right.

Before long he had restaurants in Columbia, Anderson and Greenville. He sold all but the Greenville restaurant, which he says has been his most successful. He wanted a place that was casual and fun. In fact, if someone comes in wearing a tie, the bartenders have been known to cut the tie off. Several are hanging from a string behind the bar, adorned with the business cards of the men who once owned them.

One protested, saying that was an expensive tie. The bartender responded, “We don’t want cheap ties up there.”

Paul, whose real name is Clyde E. Paul, grew up in Texas, where his love for hunting began. His parents gave him his first guns as gifts, a Remington .22 and a 410 Winchester single barrel.

His eye was injured in a rock-throwing incident when he was a child, but he’s known to embellish that story as it suits him. When children ask him if he’s a pirate, he says, yes, in fact he is.

The menagerie of taxidermy, which was crafted by a Pennsylvania man, grew over time, and Paul didn’t have any place to display the pieces in his Collins Creek home. Now his grand slam North American sheep collection is hanging from the walls in his office next door to the restaurant. He has 11 of the 12 needed for a grand slam of world sheep.

He also has a couple of lions, some leopards and, of course, an armadillo. All of it will be sold, along with the kitchen equipment and the 45-foot bar, at auction Nov. 22 and 23.

Gene Gore, who is handling the auction, said it is the most unusual collection he has sold. All the signs, prints, chandeliers, even the floor in the party area will be auctioned in the parking lot outside the restaurant.